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Boomers Are Not Saving Enough for Retirement, Neither Is the Government

Wall Street endlessly gushes about retirement. Its TV commercials show how wonderful life will be in our golden years—when we are old, yet still healthy and wealthy enough to go hang-gliding every day.

“I’m Going to Work Until I Die.” Yes, You Most Likely Will, So Embrace It

In 1986, 10.6% of the population older than 65 was still working. In 2016, it was 18.6%, and I suspect the number will keep rising.

The Washington Post story profiles some working senior citizens:

Richard Dever had swabbed the campground shower stalls and emptied 20 garbage cans, and now he climbed slowly onto a John Deere mower to cut a couple acres of grass.

“I’m going to work until I die, if I can, because I need the money,” said Dever, 74, who drove 1,400 miles to this Maine campground from his home in Indiana to take a temporary job that pays $10 an hour.

Dever shifted gently in the tractor seat, a rubber cushion carefully positioned to ease the bursitis in his hip—a snapshot of the new reality of old age in America.

Dever’s story isn’t unusual. Many older people sell their homes, buy campers, and move around the country. Some just enjoy sightseeing—but many are making ends meet as seasonal laborers. Amazon even has a formal program for them called CamperForce.

Amazon makes it sound fun: “Your next RV adventure is here,” says the website. But it’s not the kind of adventure most camping enthusiasts would prefer.

Now, the idea of working past age 65 isn’t necessarily so bad. After all, work isn’t “work” if you enjoy doing it. The problem arises when the work is physically difficult or otherwise unpleasant.

I know many people over 65 who are very happily employed. John Mauldin, for one.

He’s 68 and keeps a schedule that would exhaust much younger folks. Working past retirement age isn’t always a nightmare—though it can definitely be one if you are forced into it.

Encore Career

We know most Americans in that age group don’t have enough savings to simply stop working. If that’s you, here are some tips what to do.

1. Save and invest as much as you can, even if the amount seems small. It will still come in handy. (In my recent exclusive special report, I describe one fixed income asset class that can yield up to 6-8% returns with moderate risks. Download it here for free).

2. Take care of your health. Lose weight, get exercise, eat healthy. This will both minimize your medical expenses and let you work more comfortably if you need to.

3. Think ahead about what kind of work you can do in retirement. Identify a job you can “retire into.” It should be something you enjoy, that earns real income, and that you’ll be able to continue even as aging slows you down.

4. Don’t look at it as Plan B. Think of retirement as a new stage in your career. As I said, work is only work if you don’t enjoy it. If you plan ahead, it can be a time when you work on your own terms instead of someone else’s.

In my case, there’s no reason I can’t keep writing into my seventies. Maybe I’ll take more vacations, but I don’t want to stop writing completely. I’m not sure I could stop even if I wanted to.

Meanwhile, those extra working years will let me save longer and my savings to compound, which will leave me in a better position when I can’t work anymore and have to tap my savings.

In that regard, watch this short video by Gary Vaynerchuk. It has a little profanity at the end, but watch anyway. He has a message that may help.

We all have more time than we think… and we can do a lot with it.

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